Project Alinn Yaung III

If you are an SMU student, you probably know that you have to clear 80 hours of CIP in order to GRADUATE. 

Honestly speaking, that was my initial intention but after awhile, having been to an Overseas CIP during my JC days, I know that I will not regret going on this trip.

But of course, I was complaining like mad before as I signed up for the R&R part which makes the already long trip 18 days long. That is like more than half a month. 

Which means to say, I am going to miss ALL my Samba practices and I am gonna be so doomed for the Christmas busking. And I will have less time for my family and friends. 

So my boyfriend was telling me that "ya ya you always complain in the end you will say you don't want the thing to end". I was like, no, but when I thought about it, that happened to all my orientation camps. 

And he was right. I did miss those moments after I returned from Myanmar.

Alright, enough of the irrelevant elaboration. So all the non-Burmese (except two of them - David and Htet Soe from the admin team) met at the Airport and off we flew to the land of Tanaka (their traditional face foundation) and Pagodas.

We took the Myanmar Airlines and I was really happy to have the window seat hurhur. Time for some step flight Instagram worthy photos, like the one above and below. 

Oh, and we caught the sunset too. 

It was a rather short flight, slightly less than 3 hours, and the flight meal was awesome. Just that the seats were a lil squeezy. 

I sat with my friend Aisha and Darren Tay, and you have no idea how much Darren can talk. Non-stop. From the aeroplane to the sky to the wind to the pilot. And when he got tired from drinking red wine, Aisha and I heaved a sigh of relief.

P.S. Pictures taken from either my phone, my friend's phone or my friend's Dslr. Okay a bit redundant but copyright issues yeah.

So we arrived and met up with the rest at the Myanmar airport, took a 1+ hour bus ride to our destination - Pann Pyo Let Monastery. It was already dark but the people there were really nice; we were greeted by the head monk and the assistant head monk and dinner was cooked and served for us.

We carried out our lesson plan immediately the next day. They have their daily morning assembly and I was amazed at how loud they sang for all the songs - National Song, School Song, etc (actually I don't really remember what songs they sang). But obviously if you compare that amount of enthusiasm to students in Singapore, we are like considered mute. 

The students had to pick up leaves as a part to keep the school clean. And I managed to catch a shot of the 2 cutey pies I taught for the 2 weeks hehe. But this was taken before I get to know them.

And not forgetting the annoying duck family (you can see the three yellow ducklings here but I swear they disappeared after this picture). Their quacks sounded like moving hinges and they always party at night. 

And sometimes the male wants to mate the female, in front of all of us. I realized animals do not care about their privacy at all.

Apparently, this monastery have donors almost everyday, and they will donate breakfast/lunch to the entire school. As it was the first day for us, we get to witness the whole appreciation-for-donor ceremony and we helped to serve the food to the students. 

We conducted English lessons to improve on their use of English language and for some parts, we created some sort of competition among the students like drawing competition, spelling competition. And again, the students were so enthusiastic. 

We taught Grades 1, 3, 5 and 7, and it was pretty hard to get attention from the students of the lower grades as their are quite restless HAHAHA and their voices are super squeaky. 

After lessons, we took a walk to the Spider Forest led by the Assistant Head Monk and the evening sunlight was so awesome??? Picture spamming time.

Ft. Chaw, my roomie for 2 days.

Why 2 days?

Because something happened. 

The girls stayed in a separate dormitory from the guys. Ours looked more like a house white the guys' was just an elevated hut, like an attap house in the kampong. But the interior was nice, the floor was wooden and there was a toilet inside. For the girls' dorm, we had separate rooms and 2 toilets (the toilet was pretty clean) and a dining area. 

So my roomie and I got the last room which was facing the toilet but then nothing happened; all was peaceful while we slept there.

However the second night (actually I couldn't really remember what exactly happened), the guys heard someone walking from one corner of the dorm to another but when they shine the torchlight there was nobody, and it happened for a few times. Oh take it as the wood creaking then.

The girls' dorm, my friend saw someone else sitting on my other friend's bed but it wasn't her. Then again, it could have been an illusion.

But obviously we weren't being rational and all of us basically just freaked out when we heard the stories BECAUSE IT WAS ONLY THE SECOND DAY and we have so much more to go. So I end up shifting to the bigger room with 7 other girls and my roomie slept with my other friend in a separate room because they weren't scared at all.

There's more to it and you'll find out if you are patient enough to keep reading on hurhur.

But we did have fun at night after our meetings, talking to one another, playing resistance, werewolf (our favourite game), burning bridges HAHAHA I really miss those times ...

The next few days we had similar lessons going on.

Occasionally the kids will go out and play soccer if there was time between lessons so for 1 day we decided to observe them. Turns out that they brought us out of the school to this small dried field (it was just right outside the school) and that's where they usually play soccer.

We were standing and a small boy found a mat of some sort and brought it for us to sit down while we watch them play. Personally I admire this boy for being so considerate because they were so happy about being able to play soccer I wouldn't expect them to think for us.

Ft. The Head Monk in his red robes.

The first week apart from teaching English, we made them play some games required for Sports Day.

The students are so focused on the game such that they wouldn't mind literally diving into rocks or swimming in the sand. And then they get bruises and wounds here and there but if you asked whether they are alright, they'll give you a thumbs up. 

We played Captain's Ball with them. No, we didn't get thrashed okay. They give chance HURHUR.

Here comes Sports Day and I was the IC for 2 games (holy kill me please) - Protect the Treasure and Dog and Bone.

It was exceptionally tiring for the times when I had to record the scores and blow the whistle or shout the numbers. The sun was bloody hot too.

Here comes the weekend and we went out of the Monastery to tour around for abit. Stopped at Bogyoke Market first to buy our loots and the accessories there are pretty affordable and they're damn nice???

Afterwards we went to visit some Pagodas and had to walk barefooted if we were to enter the Pagoda.

Photo credit: Aaron

So this is the Friday corner, meaning that I was born on a Friday and I'll visit this corner to obtain blessings from the Buddha.

The Shwedagon Pagoda looked really spectacular at night.

We had dinner at a nearby Chinese Restaurant (finally some Chinese food) and the view there was awesome.

The next day we woke up super early and took a bumpy bus ride to where the famous Golden Rock Pagoda is.

We reached the station and had to switch to an open truck ride; everyone had to squeeze really tight together so that you will not fall off during the crazy rollercoaster-like ride.

Almost fell over and died while taking this picture.
Moral of the story: if you have no sense of balance, DO NOT try to do a yoga pose. Given the high altitude of this platform, your centre of gravity is high and chances of you toppling over is 101%.

The Boys' Generation.

The Girls' Generation.

Started school again and we had to add Mass Dance lessons on top of the English classes (My team and I choreographed the Mass Dance okay virgin choreo experience sia lololol).

This little cutey pie was the sweetest girl ever??? She never fails to offer to help carry my barang barang and she'll always save a seat for me beside her in class. AND SHE LOOKS SUPER CUTE TOO.

Me teaching them the penguin part of the dance hurhur.

We had to put up a Burmese dance performance and we are wearing their traditional outfit.

Aaron - my dance partner, and we are really damn fail, can lose count one sia.

This is the favourite Alpha male - he is 17 years old and he wanted a picture with me but he was so shy...

He is an orphan and the last few days he chilled outside our dorm and htht with the guys, of course they stirred alot of shit too. He helped to carry our luggages early in the morning and he told my friend that he has never felt so sad before (cuz we were leaving) AND HE WROTE ME A POEM HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Rating: 11/10

It was the last day spent together with the students in the monastery and we had to help carry some bricks for some construction.

This cute little baby was dozing off like a pendulum when the Headmonk was making his speech.

The "ice-cream-donors".

Remember the freaky story I wrote at the start?

Turns out that our dorms were built on cemetery and the Headmonk left a spirit there to guard the area.

May sound fake but at least we only found out on the last day, otherwise I would have freaked out and died LOL.

We also had Christmas caroling at night and we "busked" to the Headmonk so he gave $30 to the kids hahaha so cute.

Some of our teammates left us for home while the rest of us continued on our 13-hour bus ride to catch the sunrise at another Pagoda.

We visited Mandalay Palace and the architecture was freaking good for photo taking!

Checked in at our hotel and moved on to catch the sunset at this bridge with no handrails OMG and there were gaps between the wooden planks we were walking on.

Visited another Pagoda at night and they all looked so golden under the moonlight.

Had steak for dinner! But it wasn't very seasoned. Verdict: Not bad.

Breakfast was awesome: my looooooong awaited American brunch breakfast with an awesome view of the sunrise.

Headed to the Jade Pagoda and I swear it was one of the cleanest (I mean like imagine having to walk barefooted on the floors) and the place was so cooling and windy!

Featuring my two team leaders.

Climbed another Pagoda to catch the sunset. Not forgetting to buy more ahma pants too.

Moved to Bagan the next morning and checked in at this Hotel/Resort - we got the Suite hurhur (cuz there were three of us staying togetherrrr) 

My virgin horsecart ride.

The horse was super competitive though, it likes to be the first and leave the rest far behind.

Our personal horsecart chauffeur haha.

Finally saw in real life and took a picture with a super cool tribal lady? Tick on my bucket list.

Then there was this boy who is going to be a novice monk and they held a super grand ceremony for him. I want to sit on an elephant too. Sobbles.

Overall it was a memorable trip and I really enjoyed myself really much. 

Was really thankful to each and everyone of our teammates for cooperating with one another and taking care of each another. Special thanks to those who showered care and concern for me and of course, my buddy Aisha who brought her life-saving ikan bilis to go with my rice (I felt sick and was lacking appetite for a moment)

Here's a vlog to summarize my trip: